Post-COVID, the upcoing world for comic book films is certainly much less certain than it was at the start of the year. Projects suspended, delayed, uncertain to even meet the most delayed projected dates, and potentially the only superhero movie to come out for the entire year is Birds of Prey. Recently though, the production side of things have started to rear back up, as restrictions begin to lift to allow films and TV shows to resume filming. One significant area that has been delayed has been the MCU's Disney+ shows, with Falcon reportedly only having "one or two" weeks left of shooting before completion, and WandaVision facing conflicting reports that it may make it's 2020 release date or may be back to it's original 2021 slot.
Recently, however, the Hawkeye show (which is seemingly the next of the live action shows to begin filming) recently hired directors to helm the show. Naturally, this eventually lead to a discussion about casting, particularly about the role of Kate Bishop, reportedly offered to Hailee Steinfeld last year. Upon news of Steinfeld initially receiving the part, there was some backlash from people who believed the comic character to be Asian or part-Asian and saw the casting as a form of whitewashing. Ironically, not only is Kate Bishop not part-Asian in the comics, but Hailee Steinfeld herself actually is part-Asian in real life. However, it has since been reported that due to contractual, non-compete clauses in her contract for Dickinson (which she stars in and also executive produces) might prevent her from being able to take the part. When someone brought this up, co-Editor-In-Chief of DisInsider (a site you may recognize for some of its Disney news, including breaking the news that the Russo Brothers would be involved in a live-action adapation of Disney's Hercules) Derek Cornell said the following:
Following this, MCU Cosmic's Jeremy Conrad (who accurately reported the existence of the Eternals movie prior to it's official announcement, revealed that he heard two other names had come up for Kate Bishop in the past few months: Ready Player One's Olivia Cooke and American Horror Story actress Taissa Farmiga (who some may recognize as the voice of Raven in DC's recent Teen Titans animated films).
Olivia Cooke (left) and Taissa Farmiga (right)
While it remains to be seen who (if any) of the reported candidates may have gotten the part, if Marvel was looking at people other than Steinfeld in the past few months it is likely that her contractual obligations were impossible to work around for the part. If Marvel is ramping up production on Hawkeye once more (possibly to step in once filming for Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set to finish in Atlanta during August), we may hear more definitive news as to the casting of Kate Bishop soon.